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"Sweeping changes may be in store at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the nation’s frontline emergency response coordinator, that experts warned could further erode US capacity to handle disasters as the risks of extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis continue to rise."
"The Trump administration will soon propose softening Biden-era limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, delaying but keeping tough standards for two common types and rescinding limits on some rarer forms of the substance, according to an EPA official."
"FEMA slowed grants intended to help states such as California and Colorado prepare for and prevent wildfires, a Washington Post analysis shows."
"Media organizations and funders should proactively involve young people in journalism. There are some stories best told by young people, and youth media programs can help teenagers recognize themselves as important contributors to the news ecosystem, not simply as content consumers. If we don’t invest in building a community that involves the next generation of news creators and consumers, we can’t act surprised if there isn't one."
"Thousands of Milwaukee children are growing up with poison in their blood. It courses through their veins, cements in their bones and threatens to rob them of impulse control, learning ability and physical health."
"A South Dakota mining company has canceled a drilling project in the Black Hills after opposition from Native American tribes and local groups."
"Cycles of high tick activity are coming earlier and staying later, experts previously told USA TODAY, thanks to factors including shorter seasons, warmer winters and even acorns."
"Warming ocean waters are priming beaches and raw shellfish for Vibrio even as scientists are trying to stay one step ahead"
"Flooding across northern Michigan last month pushed rivers to record levels, testing the limits of the state’s aging dams so severely that officials in one city nearly ordered evacuations as water threatened to spill over the top of a key barrier — a close call that highlights the growing risk that intensifying storms pose to similar infrastructure around the country."
"In Benin, mangroves are said to be protected by the Zangbéto. In the Vodun belief, this deity forbids wood cutting, under penalty of a curse. As a result, in 10 years, more than 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of mangroves have been preserved thanks to this spiritual practice, which protects fragile and vital ecosystems."
"The Trump administration has slashed funding for infectious disease research and has far fewer employees, including disease detectives, to respond to outbreaks."
"Ahead of President Donald Trump’s trip to China next week, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers — including about two-thirds of the Senate — is urging him to seek the release of publisher Jimmy Lai, an ardent critic of the Chinese Communist Party who has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since 2020."
"More miles of the country’s rivers were reconnected last year thanks to dam removals than at any other time in history."
"More than 12 million people now have Parkinson’s Disease, nearly double the number from just six years ago. From kids who pedaled behind mosquito trucks in the 1950s and ‘60s to veterans exposed to Agent Orange to landscapers and farmers who attribute their Parkinson’s to pesticides, a generation of elders–and increasing numbers of young-onset patients–now suffer from what we didn’t know about chemicals in the 20th Century. "
"Ted Turner built a media empire, then turned much of his wealth and attention toward land, wildlife, clean energy, and conservation. His vast private landholdings became working examples of restoration, from bison herds and native trout to longleaf pines and red-cockaded woodpeckers."
